Metal slammed against stone as weapons and armor clattered to the ground. Bodies followed, crashing onto the concrete with heavy, breath stealing thuds.
Groaning, they slowly stood, clutching their heads.
"You okay?" Leaf asked, squinting at the others.
But before her eyes could settle on any one of them, something else caught her attention.
The scenery.
It was beautiful.
The others raised their heads, and like her, were instantly silenced by the sight.
Lush flowers arced across the open field. Moonlight spilled softly over their petals like a blessing. For a moment, it felt like they'd left the dungeon entirely. But they hadn't.
Adventurers often spoke of places like this.
The dungeon was alive in every sense of the word. A massive, breathing ecosystem. It didn't move like a building, instead it shifted like a beast, its guts rearranging into strange and inconsistent levels.
Some were exactly what you'd expect: damp, narrow corridors filled with monsters and rusted doors. Others, like this, felt like pieces of another world entirely.
It was one reason many believed it was man made, though the theory about the ancient magician was still a bit... out there.
"Where are we?" Julle muttered, rubbing her head. Then suddenly, she shouted. "Wait. Nobody move!"
"What now?" Horvess barked, half annoyed.
"My staff. Where is it?" she said, rising quickly, her eyes darting over the field.
"Is that why you're screaming, because of a damn stick—" Horvess began, already rummaging for his map.
"That STICK is the only thing that's going to keep us alive down here!" she shouted, and Horvess immediately retreated with a raised hand. "You like cooking right? You like when I create fire easily right??"
"Alright, alright..." he mumbled. "I'm looking."
"Looking for this?" a voice said.
They turned. A masked figure sat nearby, holding the staff in one hand. The leaf on its tip, normally green with magic, had turned purple.
"Yes!" Julle cried, running over and snatching it from him. "Thank you so mu—"
She stopped.
And in the next instant, Leaf was on him. Both daggers drawn—one at his neck, the other hovering over one of the eyeholes of his helmet.
Horvess stood too, hammer in one hand, map in the other.
"Who are you?" Leaf hissed. Her eyes narrowed on the bizarre helmet, where spike like protrusions arched forward and back like the horns of some insectoid god, seeing this, she stopped and corrected herself. "What are you?
The figure didn't speak.
He didn't move either.
He merely watched, all three of them. Though it was hard to see where his gaze landed.
Then just like a bad feeling, like an ominous touch. She felt his mana, exuding from his form. As it curdled against her, merely for a moment.
She felt sick.
"Julle, burn him!" Leaf said, dashing back. "Do it now!"
Julle was already up, staff in hand. Pointed at the figure.
"Oh Fire Spirit, Inferna," she chanted, "I beseech your otherworldly strength as your loyal vessel. Bestow upon me your flames as I scorch thy enemies!"
"FIREBALL!"
A large ball of flames sparked in the air instantaneously, so fast you'd have missed it if you blinked. And in the next moment it left her grasp, and barreled through the air toward the figure.
Leaf and Horvess backed up immediately, the ball of flames slamming into the armored figure. A clean hit, that they were sure of.
But as the flames dispersed, the figure still sat there, unscathed, untouched by the elements.
"What kind of person tries to kill someone they just met?" the figure finally said, standing up.
"Do it again!" Leaf snapped.
"Wait—" he raised a hand. "I just want to—"
"FIREBALL!"
A blast of heat surged through the air, so hot it melted the smaller rocks behind him. When the flames cleared and the smoke dispersed, moonlight poured back in.
He stood there again. Unburned. Unbothered.
"—Talk," he finished. "Just listen. I only want to—"
"AGAIN!"
"FIREBALL!"
Another explosion. An encore of flame. Same result.
"—tell you that this isn't going to work," he sighed. "You're wasting mana—"
"AGAIN!"
"LISTEN TO ME!" he finally shouted, the force of his voice rattling the trees. Lyracrows roosting above startled and scattered into the night.
"Your mana is foul!" Leaf barked. "You're a demon, aren't you? You got shuffled in the Parashift and now you're trying to feed us to your occult masters!"
"You have a wildly overactive imagination," he replied, with a shake of his head. Then, he turned slightly, his head pausing by his side, as if looking at something. Then in another moment, he turned back to her.
"I'm not a bad person." He said. "If anything it's you guys, why did you push me in the dead point?"
"Wait, you pushed us!" Leaf said, squinting.
"No I didn't! You pushed me!"
"No, you pushed us!"
"That is the exact opposite of what happened!"
Horvess and Julle stood awkwardly off to the side, watching the two argue like squabbling siblings.
Eventually, they turned to each other.
And sighed.
"I don't think he's a demon, Leaf," Julle said, stepping forward. "If he was, when he touched my staff, the pulse(the leaf at the end) would've turned red. Or blue. But it didn't, so I think he's clear."
"But his mana!" Leaf argued, "Can't you guys feel it?"
Horvess just shrugged behind her, shaking his head.
Julle stepped closer to the masked figure. Close enough to now hear his slow, steady breathing. As an elf, she had an extreme sense for mana, being able to feel a strong mana presence from miles away, and yet...
Nothing.
She couldn't sense anything. Not even a trace of mana. Definitely not something foul.
Leaf was probably just imagining things, most likely because of what happened with Cruca. Since the both of them were attackers that donned heavy armor.
"I don't feel anything," Julle said softly, glancing at her. "At all."
"Really?" Leaf squinted at him again, this time feeling nothing as well. Had she imagined it? "Hm..."
"Does this mean you guys are going to apologize for launching fireballs at my face?" the armored man asked.
"No way!" Leaf snapped. "even if you aren't a demon, you're extremely sketchy—"
"—Please don't mind my partner," Julle interjected quickly, extending a hand. "I'm Julle Elksfallen, mage of Crosstails."
"You're an elf," the figure said, suddenly beside her, reaching up to touch her ears.
Julle jolted back, raising both hands defensively. "What are you doing?!"
"Oh, sorry," he said, raising his hands in surrender. "I don't see a lot of demihumans..."
"Okay, but still," Julle muttered, unsure how to feel. "You can't just grab someone. You have to ask first."
"Oh, in that case. Can I touch them?"
"No!" Julle backed up more. "...you made it weird."
"What are you people even doing?" Horvess grumbled from the ground, poring over his map. "We're in the middle of Gandora knows where, and instead of trying to figure out how we make our escape before the next shuffle, you're goofing around? Gods, to be young and carefree again—"
"You're very well built!" the figure chirped, now beside Horvess, poking at his arms, his head, then his belly. "This must've taken years to achieve!"
Horvess blinked. His train of thought shattered like glass. "...Thanks?"
"Sorry again," the figure said, stepping back. "Forgot I was supposed to ask. But still, a dwarf and an elf... this must be Christmas!"
"Ahem." Leaf cleared her throat, standing firmly in the field.
"Hm?"
"She wants you to have an interest in her biology as well," Julle explained.
"I want no such thing!" Leaf snapped. "I simply... coughed!"
"I'm not interested in her," the figure replied casually. "She's a spider, right? Bugs are gross."
Silence.
"Julle," Leaf said, voice calm. "You can use water magic, right? Let's drown this bastard."
"Now now," Julle tried to soothe her. Then she turned back to the stranger. "Still. What's your name? We don't even know what to call you."
"Vallastria Dragontalon Filnumvumbiet," he said, matter-of-factly. "But that's a mouthful, so you can call me Valla."
"You don't say..." Julle muttered. "Alright then, Valla. You already know me, so let me introduce you to the remaining two members of Crosstails, the first is the girl who's glaring at you, her name is Leaf, and the second—the grumbler with the map is Horvess."
Horvess raised a hand in greeting.
"Horvess is a cool name," Valla said, giving him a nod.
"Not cooler than your armor," Horvess replied, eyeing him with interest. "Is that Cecalieta?"
"Yes," Valla said, softly nodding his head. "You know your stuff."
"Heh." Horvess puffed up. "Worked with all sorts of materials back in the day as a miner."
"'Back in the day? You make it sound like you're ancient."
"I am ancient," Horvess chuckled. "I'm a hundred years old, lad. Life's catching up to me."
"A hundred? You don't look a day over thirty."
"Really?" Horvess blushed under his beard. "You're just saying that."
"No, I mean it."
Then, from the side, a soft grumble:
"I don't like him," Leaf muttered.
"Because he said bugs are gross?" Julle asked without looking at her.
"Shut up!" Leaf stomped over, placing herself squarely in front of Valla, her head reaching just below his chest. "What were you even doing in the dead point? Let me guess? you were trying to befriend us, sabotage us, then kill us in our sleep!"
"I don't see why I'd do most of that," Valla said flatly, "and for the record, you guys attacked me first."
"What she means," Julle cut in smoothly, stepping forward, "is why you were still in the dungeon during the Parashift. Did you get lost?"
"No," Valla said. "I live here."
Silence.
"You live in the dungeon?" Julle laughed. "I know we just met, but... you don't have to lie."
"I'm not lying. I live in the dungeon. I was heading back to the fiftieth floor to wait out the Parashift before you bumped into me."
"Lies!" Leaf snapped. "You bumped into us!"
"Wait," Julle said, frowning. "The fiftieth floor? That's still within range of the Parashift, isn't it?"
"No. That's where the Sovereign of Mirrors resides," Valla said calmly. "Any lone floor with a Sovereign becomes an anchor level. The effects of the dungeon don't affect there."
More silence.
Then—
"...What are you talking about?" Julle asked, her voice suddenly dropping.
"What are you talking about?" Horvess echoed behind her.
"How do you know that name?" Leaf demanded, stepping forward. "The Sovereign of Mirrors, how do you know my master?"
Valla looked at them. Then sighed.
This. This was why he traveled alone, to keep the people around him safe. Because in this dungeon, the Sovereign's were the leaders, and their subjects fawned over them like such.
He sighed again. "Let them go."
Leaf froze. Her pupils dilated, her breath hitching, tongue twitching slightly. "How do you know that name...? Who are you?"
"I won't ask again," Valla said.
"Tell me how you know that name!" Horvess shouted. "Or I'll kill them all—"
"This is always so annoying."
Mana pulsed through the air, a darkened hue filling the level like a cruel smog. So thick, the monsters within dashed toward the entrances, whimpering like scared dogs.
And in the next moment. Without an incantation or chant.
"Fireball."